“The side effects of accommodative monetary policy have so far offset each other. There is therefore no risk of financial bubbles: Share prices are in line with fundamentals”. The president of the ECB said today, Mario Draghi, during its quarterly hearing in the European Parliament.
“Our monetary policy is structured to give price stability throughout the Eurozone – added the Eurotower number one – The resilience demonstrated by the Eurozone in 2016 shows that we are on the right track”.
According to Draghi, “we must not stop efforts to make the monetary union more solid and prosperous even if the economic situation improves and if challenges in other fields have attracted attention. We must and can address the weaknesses that remain at national and European level”.
At the ECB, “we certainly look with concern at announcements of protectionism”, Draghi said again, specifying that “the European Union was created on the foundations of free trade and the four freedoms. It is still too early to judge but we will have to evaluate”.
Finally, Draghi reiterated that in the event of a worsening of the situation "the Governing Council of the ECB is prepared to increase the securities purchase programme, in terms of volume and/or duration".
In general, added the ECB president, “the benefits of our policy clearly outweigh its side effects. And the latter, if necessary, are better managed through other policies”.
"It is easy to underestimate the strength of the political commitment that has kept us together for 60 years - concluded Draghi - this would diminish the progress we have made, with the single currency we have built bonds that have allowed us to survive the worst economic crisis since the Second World War world". Draghi did not mention any country from which criticisms and attacks on European unity and the single currency come. But the messages of the new American administration go in this direction.
